Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act (2019)

The Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act (CLCPA) is among the nation’s most aggressive climate and environmental justice laws. The CLCPA, commonly referred to as NY’s landmark climate law, was passed after years of campaigning by NY Renews. The CLCPA commits to 100% zero-emission electricity by 2040, sets legally binding emissions reduction standards to get New York completely off of fossil fuels by 2050, and mandates that 40% of state climate and energy funding be invested in disproportionately disadvantaged communities. Thanks to organizing, lobbying, and advocacy efforts by NY Renews and its 300+ member coalition, the CLCPA passed in 2019.

CLCPA Resources:

Currently, NY Renews is continuing to work on the implementation of the CLCPA to ensure that it centers equity, justice and the priorities originally set out in the law that we passed. Efforts that have arisen from the passage of the CLCPA include regulation, litigation, and public education, as well as the replication and popularization of ideas put forth by this legislation, such as building a just transition from the ground up.

Additionally, the CLCPA set up the Climate Action Council (CAC) to draft an implementation plan, known as a scoping plan, to ensure its goals are met. NY Renews member organizations and leaders are represented within the CAC, its advisory panels, as well as on the Climate Justice Working Group, all of which inform the development of the scoping plan. We also continue to organize and advocate from outside of this body through education, organizing and advocacy, and the formation of a People's CAC. As an examples of this advocacy, here is the False Solutions Report we released as a coalition; an article where Eddie Bautista, SC member and Executive Director of NYC-EJA, speaks about the false promise of “green” hydrogen; and our Final Letter to the CAC on Scoping Plan Principles. 

In late December, the CAC released its draft scoping plan for the CLCPA. During the scoping plan public comment period in 2022, there will be multiple opportunities for us to provide feedback on the plan through written comments and at a series of public comment sessions that are being organized across the state.

Our top-line non-negotiable demands for the scoping plan, determined at the last NY Renews retreat in August 2021, include the following:

  • Minimum 40% of climate and clean energy investments directed to disadvantaged communities (DACs)

  • Section 7 of the CLCPA (climate and equity screens)

  • Implicates all state agencies, offices, authorities, and divisions

  • Decisions do not interfere with attainment of greenhouse gas (GHG) emission limits

  • Decisions do not disproportionately burden DACs; GHG and co-pollutant reductions prioritized in DACs

  • Enforcement of GHG and co-pollutant reductions/fossil fuel bans

  • No false solutions, such as biofuels, renewable natural gas, biomass, blue or green hydrogen, waste-to-energy (with further need to nuance positions)

  • Enforcing guardrails around alternative compliance mechanisms for final 15% of GHG emissions